How can you develop a self-reflection routine that works for your mentoring goals?

Self reflection is essential for mentors. I start my quiet time by adding 5 items to my gratitude list. This makes sure I am in a positive frame of mind. I then think of the mentee and their challenge. Do I have personal experience with this difficulty? Have I successfully overcome this challenge? How severe is this effecting their life? I then create a simple 3 step process for them to focus on for the week or month.

I encourage trainees and early career faculty to complete individual development plans every 6 months. One of the most important step in creating an IDP is performing a self-evaluation.

Following significant mentoring sessions, seminars, or hard talks, it is important to reflect in order to evaluate your effectiveness and determine areas in which you could improve. Self-reflection sessions should be scheduled on a regular basis, independent of the individual events that may occur, in order to evaluate your overall progress and make certain that you are fulfilling your mentoring goals. Taking some time to reflect at the conclusion of the programme gives you the opportunity to assess the program's overall impact, determine the lessons you've learned and make plans for future mentoring opportunities.

Self reflection is about curiosity. It is about exploring, without fear or judgement the feelings, emotions, sensations that emerge for you at home, at work and everywhere in between. Doing this is so incredibly powerful. There is no magic way to do self reflection that works for everyone. Trying different methods and see what suits you best. For me and for many of my clients, journaling, sitting in silence, and finding long open spaces to consider, without judgement all that is emerging for you, has been the most powerful. But many methods exist so try and see what works for you.

Conduct an evaluation of your interpersonal communication style, your capacity for active listening, and your ability to offer constructive criticism. Determine how well your mentee is doing in relation to their objectives. A sufficient amount of help and direction was provided by you. Have they experienced the learning and development results that were considered desirable? It is important to recognise your own preconceived notions and how they may have influenced the way you interacted with your mentee. When providing direction, you should strive to be objective and fair. Give some thought to the lessons you picked up from your mentee and the whole mentoring experience.

Take use of your reflections to identify areas in which you may enhance your mentoring abilities and improve your effectiveness. For the sake of self-improvement in future mentoring relationships, you should establish goals that are explicit and measurable, based on your own self-reflection. You should solicit feedback on your performance from your mentee, coworkers, or other mentors and you should also suggest additional areas in which you ought to improve. You should keep a notebook or a personal log in which you record your reflections in order to keep track of your progress and discover any trends or difficulties that keep occurring.

Attempt a variety of methods for engaging in self-reflection, such as keeping a journal, engaging in freewriting, following guided prompts or engaging in mindfulness activities. In order to engage in self-reflection, one must be honest and vulnerable. As a mentor, you should be willing to acknowledge both your talents and your flaws. Acknowledge and rejoice in the accomplishments you have achieved as a mentor. Your self-assurance and motivation to continue learning and developing will both increase as a result of this. If you want to improve your knowledge and effectiveness as a mentor, you might think about participating in mentoring skills training programmes or workshops.